A hall of fame serves as a way to recognize distinguished members of a community in a field of endeavor. Those elected to membership in a hall of fame represent the highest achievement in their field, serving as models of what can be achieved and how. Each Software Product Line Conference culminates with a session in which members of the audience nominate systems for induction into the Software Product Line Hall of Fame. These nominations feed discussions about what constitutes excellence and success in product lines. The goal is to improve software product line practice by identifying the best examples in the field. Nominations are acted on by a panel of expert judges, who decide which nominees will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Members of the software product line hall of fame should serve as models of what a software product line should be, exhibiting most or all of the following characteristics:

The family that constitutes the product line is clearly identified, i.e., there is a way to tell whether or not a software system is a member of the product line, either by applying a known rule or a known enumeration.

The family that constitutes the product line is explicitly defined and designed as a product line, i.e., the commonalities and variability that characterize the members of the product line are known and there is an underlying design for the product line that takes advantage of them.

The product line has had a strong influence on others who desire to build and evolve product lines, and has gained recognition as a model of what a product line should be and how it should be built. Others have borrowed, copied, and stolen from it in creating their product lines or in expounding ideas and practices for creating product lines.

The product line has been commercially successful.

There is sufficient documentation about the product line that one can understand its definition, design, and implementation without resorting solely to hearsay.